PAUSE – When It’s Time to Just Cozy Up

On Monday I wrote about the reminder to PAUSE when the unexpected crops up. Well, the unexpected continued to crop up because it was a full week of vomiting for my little family of 5, which meant that nothing went as expected. As of today, I’m out of clean sweatpants and our towel supply is low, but currently no one is vomiting so we’ll call it a win.

I finished the last few days of February by writing no morning pages, writing no words, and reading no books. If I hadn’t stopped to take stock of what’s important on Monday, I might have been really disappointed. So instead, I was only a little bit disappointed and gave myself permission to just invite the cozy.

My oldest helped with that. Twice this week he crawled into bed with my husband, me, and the baby and whispered, “let’s cuddle” as he pointed out all of the cozy things in bed with us: the pillows, the quilts, the sheets, and yes, the towels nearby to catch the baby’s vomit. And all this week he begged for me to just lay down on the couch with him. I took him up on the offer a lot more than usual. I’m grateful for him.

My middle helped me by keeping me in the moment. He likes to make sure that I’m nearby at all times, which is difficult when I’m trying to get a million things done. But this week, I just stayed where he put me and admired his ability to function in a world that is so different than him. I’m grateful for him.

My baby helped me by reminding me that wallowing in my own misery helps no one, especially not myself. Finding a purpose outside of myself helped me through the hard moments and knowing that there’s a greater good to serve is no better reminder. I’m grateful for her.

My husband helped me by picking up the slack and stepping out of his comfort zone in so many ways. Reminding me that patience is key and that we’re all doing the best we can every single day. I’m grateful for him.

So despite feeling ragged, we’ve survived this week when it could have been so much worse. The boys and my husband were all on vacation, so I wasn’t alone with everyone trying to manage it all. I was able to clock in and work almost every day. And I still managed to publish a few blog posts that I had in the queue despite my inability to string sentences together. I’m grateful for that.

[thank you to my good friend Jordy who encouraged me to find the cozy in this week and write about it!]